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Monday, October 20, 2008

The police and mental health

A new briefing paper from the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health looks at the role of the police in dealing with people with mental-health problems. The paper says that the NHS should manage health care for people in police custody and take a more active role in diverting people with mental health problems to the service they need. The paper also calls for more training for police in dealing with people with mental-health problems and for assessment suites to be provided by mental health services so that police cells no longer have to function as 'places of safety' under the Mental Health Act.